On August 29, 2015, 13 boys and four coaches from Red Land Little League won the United States Little League World Series (LLWS) Championship in Williamsport, Pennsylvania – breaking the one-day LLWS attendance record. Their motto, #WhyNotUs, and their story of a small-town team with big league dreams captured the hearts and fired the imaginations of fans around the globe who watched their magical journey.

Red Land Little League (RLLL) returned home to an amazing outpouring of support from hundreds of organizations and groups wanting to recognize and thank the young U.S. champions. Red Land immediately turned to professionals Lucy Gnazzo, president of LM Gnazzo Promotion Strategies, and Nell McCormack Abom, president of Nell McCormack Abom Communications (G&A), to assist them in creating a comprehensive public relations and meaningful philanthropic campaign that would ensure the legacy of the #2015BoysofSummer as champions and youth ambassadors of baseball, good sportsmanship, community pride, and philanthropy for generations to come.

Category: Magazines or periodicals: Print

Winner: Gannett Fleming for “Forces of Change”

Gannett Fleming is a more than 100-year-old global engineering and consulting company with 60 offices worldwide, but opportunities still remain to expand brand awareness. In an effort to inform more current and potential clients, partners, and other key influencers about the firm and its creative solutions to complex infrastructure challenges, Gannett Fleming publishes a high-quality magazine, Forces of Change. The publication raises the company’s profile as a growing firm that is driven by innovation, client service, and passion for its work. It also adds value to the engineering industry by showcasing new technologies and methods. As the magazine’s circulation continues to grow, Forces of Change has become an essential tool in Gannett Fleming’s public relations toolkit.

Category: Digital Public Relations

Bravo Group for The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania
“Healthy Me PA”

In May, The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) launched Healthy Me PA, a digital grassroots community (website, Facebook, Twitter) designed to become the voice of health care in Pennsylvania. Healthy Me PA distributes compelling content to targeted audiences to empower community members to take charge of their own health care, help them navigate the health care system and, ultimately, advocate on behalf of Pennsylvania’s hospitals and health systems. Bravo Group was tasked with building the community and recruiting 100,000 community members over two years. In five months, Healthy Me PA surpassed its Year One goal of 35,000 community members by nearly 50% and reached more than half of its Year Two goal of 100,000 members — amassing 56,469 as of Sept. 26 (46,251 as of Aug. 31).

News Release/Public Service Announcement: Print

Winner: Gannett Fleming for “Hulton Bridge Wins Figg Award”

An icon to its community near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Gannett Fleming-designed Hulton Bridge was awarded the Eugene C. Figg, Jr. Medal for signature bridges in June 2016. This outstanding achievement, and the fact that this is the second Gannett Fleming project to receive this international award, provided the perfect publicity opportunity. With an overarching goal of positioning the firm as a leader in bridge design, Gannett Fleming’s Corporate Communications team went to work developing a thorough communications plan. Through the use of press materials, along with the firm’s website, social media channels, and corporate magazine, the story received significant exposure.

Category: Student

Winner: Revolution Communication, A Millersville University Student-Run Agency for Campus Cupboard for “Take a Look Inside”

The Campus Cupboard wanted to address the problem of limited awareness by raising awareness of how the community can support its organization. An awareness campaign was designed using the theme “Take A Look Inside: Campus Cupboard, The HUB, A-Frame” to get students to use the services, faculty and community members to make on-going donations, and the organization to increase its action-oriented promotional materials. The one-month campaign kickoff of the yearlong campaign was successful in raising awareness through redesigned promotional materials including a new logo; a one-day food drive with 25 boxes of food donated; redesigned Facebook page and creation of Twitter and Instagram pages; and an event tied to a major University event—SuperFest. Awareness was raised about who Campus Cupboard is, where they are located, and how to use services, make donations, and increase consistent action-oriented promotional materials.

2016 Honorable Mention Winners

Category: Student

Winner: Millersville University for Schreiber Pediatric Rehab of Lancaster County for “Growing Up Means Growing Stronger”

COGENT Public Relations, a Spring 2016 Millersville University student-run public

relations agency, prepared a planbook titled “Growing Up Means Growing Stronger” for Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center of Lancaster County. This behavior-modification campaign was designed to increase physician referrals and to improve internal tracking. This planbook outlines the goals, objectives, strategies and tactics that represent the “Growing Up Means Growing Stronger” campaign. By following this planbook, Schreiber will meet its goals of increasing patient referrals by local physicians.

Category: Student

Winner: Elevate Public Relations, a Millersville University Student-Run Firm for the Frederick Douglass Institute Collaborative for “The Proof is in the P.O.P.”

The Frederick Douglass Institute Collaborative has an opportunity to inform the general public about its mission and opportunities. Thus, the organization wanted consistent mission-driven communication pieces, unified internal communication, and a prioritized strategic communication strategy. Elevate Public Relations created a six-month public communication campaign proposal using the theme “The Proof is in the P.O.P.: Presence, Opportunity-sharing, Purpose.” The proposal, which is currently being implemented by the client, detailed a redesigned logo for F.D.I.C. including branded fonts, new letterhead, a website update, talking points, fact sheets, bookmarks, and several other pieces in a Google Drive Integration for use by all 14-PASSHE universities. The proposal successfully offered the client unified and consistent communication pieces along with a strategic communication strategy for prioritized implementation.

Since 1915, Gannett Fleming has grown from a two-person engineering firm to a 2,000+ employee global infrastructure firm with 60 offices worldwide. Unifying these diverse offices and increasing our employees’ awareness of the firm’s many achievements during its 100th anniversary year were the two main objectives of the 2015 Annual Report for Employees. From 2006 to 2014, the firm’s most significant accomplishments were organized in the annual report by region, practice, and administrative department. Gannett Fleming’s 100th anniversary provided the perfect opportunity to give the report an organizational makeover.

Students at Bloomsburg University enrolled in the Public Relations Workshop Class created a strategic public relations plan for the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Farm to Fork Initiative. The students engaged in research, planning and implementation of the program. Campaign evaluation was not completed though, as the semester concluded. However, evaluation has been ongoing and collaborative as the Chamber continues to implement plan components created by the students. The plan contains: positioning statement; situation analysis; communication objectives; key publics; recommended strategies; tactics; timetable; sample invitations to prototype events; sample flyers and posters. The work was presented to the client in December 2015.